Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Since 1981, Joseph Rescigno has served as Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor of the Florentine Opera Company of Milwaukee (WI), where he has conducted some of the company’s most challenging repertory. He also has been Music Director of La Musica Lirica, a summer program for singers in Northern Italy, since 2005. In addition, he served as Artistic Director of Metropolitan Orchestra of Greater Montreal, Quebec, for four seasons.

In permanent and guest engagements with more than 50 companies on four continents. Rescigno has traversed the repertory from rarities like Rossini’s 1816 La Gazzetta, the Brescia version of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, and Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ, to world premieres like Minoru Miki’s Jōruri and Don Davis’s Río de Sangre and neglected contemporary works like Barber’s Vanessa, all while regularly revisiting the Italian, German, and French standard repertory. In addition, Maestro Rescigno has conducted masterworks of the choral literature as well as symphonies and concertos from the baroque to the contemporary (sometimes from the keyboard in works from earlier eras). He also frequently delights music-lovers with engaging talks before performances and participates in chamber music recitals for select groups.

Rescigno’s discography includes the aforementioned Río de Sangre (Albany Records) and Jōruri (Dreamlife) and five discs for Analekta of Canada: Beethoven (Eroica symphony and Egmont overture and arias), Brahms (piano concertos with Anton Kuerti), Mendelssohn (violin concertos with Angèle Dubeau), and the solo operatic anthologies Mozart (Lyne Fortin) and Verismo (Diana Soviero).

As a guest artist, this peripatetic conductor has led the New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Seattle Opera, Atlanta Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Omaha, Arizona Opera, Hungarian State Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Vancouver Opera, Teatro Bellini, l’Opéra de Marseille, and l’Opéra de Montréal among others. The symphony orchestras he has conducted include the Montreal Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony, both of which he has led in their regular subscription series as well as in opera productions. In addition, he won Quebec’s Prix Opus for a program of all five Beethoven piano concertos with Anton Kuerti and the Metropolitan Orchestra of Greater Montreal.

Maestro Rescigno has further been privileged to collaborate with prominent musicians of three generations including instrumentalists Brigitte Engerer, Ida Haendel, Elmar Oliveira, and Pieter Wispelwey, and singers June Anderson, Angela Brown, Ghena Dimitrova, Giuseppe DiStefano, Plácido Domingo, Alfredo Kraus, Eva Marton, Johanna Meier, Erie Mills, Andrea Rost, Erika Sunnegårdh, Ruth Ann Swenson, Tatiana Troyanos, Ramón Vargas, and Deborah Voigt.

A born teacher, Rescigno derives tremendous satisfaction from working with young musicians and singers in guest engagements at universities and conservatories in addition to imparting his knowledge and experience at La Musica Lirica, in master classes, and in private coaching. He is also honored to serve on the advisory committee of the Olga Forrai Foundation as it supports the training, education, and career development of singers and conductors. Further, in recognition of the high musical standards Maestro Rescigno and The Florentine Opera Company maintain, they have been chosen to mentor Solti Foundation U.S. Award recipients as part of the Foundation’s residency project (newly expanded to opera).

This native New Yorker comes from a long line of musicians on both sides of his family. He trained as a pianist and has been studying and performing music since childhood. His uncle was the prominent conductor Nicola Rescigno, a founder of both the Dallas Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. He holds a Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music and studied with composer Nicolas Flagello and other distinguished teachers in the United States and Europe, including privately at l’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Maestro Rescigno made his New York recital debut with a program of four Beethoven piano sonatas. He went on to work with such influential conductors as Laszlo Halasz (founder of the New York City Opera), Bruno Maderna, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Carlo Moresco (the first director of the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company), and his uncle. Powerful influences also included pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, conductors Herbert von Karajan and Erich Leinsdorf, and Roberto Benaglio, the legendary chorus master of La Scala. Each one personally taught him something unforgettable.

Joseph Rescigno married his wife Jeanne in 1971, and they live in Manhattan.

Photo credit: Christian Steiner.